March 03, 2015

March 2015: Women's History Month

Millions of women were persecuted and murdered during the Holocaust era. The Nazi regime frequently subjected women, both Jewish and non-Jewish, to brutal persecution that was sometimes unique to the gender of the victims. However, it was a woman’s classification according to Nazi racist hierarchy or her religious and political affiliations that made her a target, not her sex.

Through their important roles in society and their community — including but not limited to mothers, daughters, wives, teachers, physicians — women responded to Nazi oppression in various ways. Join the Georgia Commission on the Holocaust in honoring and commemorating the women who confronted the Holocaust with resilience, resourcefulness, courage and humanity.

Follow us on Twitter @holocaustgagov or @AFintheWorld for daily tweets featuring stories of women who resisted, survived, saved lives, and participated in acts of unwavering humanity.

Visitors to the Commission-sponsored Anne Frank in the Worldin Sandy Springs will receive an ID card telling the story of a real woman who lived during the Holocaust to accompany a self-guided tour through the exhibit. 

Click here to learn more about women during the Holocaust.

Highlighted stories include:

• Madeline Deutsch "My mother was an astonishing woman... I can thank her [for] my survival…" http://ow.ly/JF0DU 

• Yona Dickmann fashioned this jackknife after SS transferred her from Auschwitz to forced labor http://ow.ly/JF0V3 

• Simone Weil assumed false identity for resistance activities for children's relief and rescue org 

• Bronka Klibanski, a resister in the Bialystok ghetto 

• Ala Gartner participated resistance movement that destroyed Crematorium 4 at Auschwitz http://ow.ly/JF1qL

• Charlene Schiff describes clandestine school 4 children in Horochow ghetto organized by women http://ow.ly/JF1zm

• Rebecca Pissirilo gave birth to daughter at Auschwitz before being executed, a nurse saved the infant http://ow.ly/JVm0Z

• Milica Kuhn remained at her husband’s side even as they were machine gunned to death by Croatian fascists http://ow.ly/JSCCT

• Irena Wos was a courier for the resistance in Warsaw, Polandhttp://ow.ly/JF30q

• Fanny Aizenberg made an agonizing decision for her child after German invasion of Belgium 

• Paula Garfinkel stole potatoes to feed her family http://ow.ly/JVkp2

• Irena Sendler helped smuggle more than 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw ghetto

• Danuta Justyna was imprisoned after twice being caught helping the resistance http://ow.ly/JF3am

• Maria Justyna was caught smuggling two resistance leaders out of Warsaw http://ow.ly/JVkEA

• Mirjam Waterman Pinkhof's resistance group in the Netherlands saved over 300 Jewish youths http://ow.ly/JF3mw

• Kazimiera Justynowa's house became a contact point and shelter for resistance fighters http://ow.ly/JVkXE

• Helene Gotthold was sentenced to death for holding illegal Bible meetings as a Jehovah's Witness http://ow.ly/JVoaQ

• Helene Waldhorn was informant for Fr. resistance while working for German military under false ID http://ow.ly/JF3ua

• Agnes Mandl rescued 50 people who were left to drown in Danube Riverhttp://ow.ly/JF3L0

• Esther Raab was among a group of prisoners in the Sobibor camp who planned an uprising and escape http://ow.ly/JF4nm

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